Offshore wind farm to become world’s largest

The Walney Island offshore wind farm near Morecambe Bay will become the largest in the world by 2018.

DONG Energy confirmed last week that it has made a final investment decision to build Walney Extension offshore wind farm off the coast of Cumbria.

Along with another project off the coast of Suffolk announced this week, the capacity for offshore wind in UK waters will be doubled.

The confirmation of the two projects, which have a combined capacity of nearly 1 gigawatt, means that the UK now has more than 10GW of offshore wind capacity either operational or under construction, or with financial support fully secured.

RenewableUK, the trade association representing the wind industry, says this week’s announcement by RWE Innogy of new project partners and investors for the Galloper offshore wind farm off the coast of Suffolk demonstrates the robustness of Britain’s world-leading offshore wind market.

10GW of offshore wind will generate sufficient electricity to meet the needs of more than seven million British homes.

Dr Gordon Edge, RenewableUK’s director of policy for economics and regulation, said: “The UK is the number one destination for offshore wind investors.

“This week’s two major announcements of offshore wind projects achieving financial close, securing billions of pounds in investment, show that it remains an attractive place to do offshore business.

“The Government’s advisory body, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), is now recommending we install one to two gigawatts of offshore wind a year throughout the 2020s to meet our carbon reduction goals, so we could reach as much as 30GW by 2030.

“The Committee on Climate Change says offshore wind is set to become cheaper than gas during the next decade, so it offers excellent value for money in terms of keeping bills down.

“We’re also generating jobs, with 13,000 people already working in the industry – that could increase to 44,000 in less than 10 years.

“However, if we’re to continue to deliver ambitious offshore infrastructure projects throughout the 2020s, we need a clear plan from Government stating how much offshore wind capacity it wants over the next decade.

“We’ve had some encouraging signals so far, but we need details of how the financial framework is going to work for offshore wind to deliver at scale, as a key part of the Government’s industrial strategy.”

DONG Energy said on Wednesday that Walney Extension is expected to be fully commissioned in 2018, at which time it will be the biggest offshore wind farm in the world (660MW), powering 460,000 UK homes and surpassing London Array (630MW).

Germany is in second place globally with 3.3GW of offshore wind capacity operational, and Denmark is in third place with 1.3GW.

Over 10 gigawatts of offshore wind secured in UK waters, doubling current capacity

RenewableUK, the trade association representing the wind industry, says today’s announcement by RWE Innogy of new project partners and investors for the Galloper offshore wind farm off the coast of Suffolk demonstrates the robustness of Britain’s world-leading offshore wind market.

It follows the announcement on Wednesday that DONG Energy has made a final investment decision to build Walney Extension offshore wind farm off the coast of Cumbria.

This consolidates Britain’s global lead in offshore wind, and will double our current operation capacity of just over 5GW. 10GW of offshore wind will generate sufficient electricity to meet the needs of more than 7 million British homes.